M.U.L.E./Phase II: Production

The Production phase

Production phase in progress

Once all four players have taken their turn during the development phase, that phase ends and the next phase begins. It's time for your M.U.L.E.s to do their thing.

Expected yield

When a M.U.L.E. is newly installed, the house icon on the plot turns into the icon representing the job that the M.U.L.E. is assigned to do. Once the production phase begins, a series of dots show up beneath that job's icon and will remain so unless that M.U.L.E. is unassigned from the plot. The number of dots, between 1 to 4, show that plot's yield potential for the given job. On average, you can expect two times the number of dots in product from that plot. If a plot has no dots beneath the symbol once the production phase begins, that plot is incapable of yielding the product requested, and it would be wise to reassign it next turn.

Dots		.	. .	. . .	. . . .
Rating	none	poor	good	great	best
Average Yield	0	1~2	3~4	5~6	7~8

Other factors

• The economic of scale: The "law" of Economies of Scale says that the bigger you are, the better you get. If you double the size of your operation, you more than double your effectiveness. This is because of things like mass production, and volume discounts on buying raw materials and building tools. In M.U.L.E., if you have two or more plots of land side by side, doing the same kind of production, your M.U.L.E.s become more efficient, and average one extra unit of production on each plot. No more than one 1 extra unit is given for "economy of scale" regardless of how many plots are touching.
• The learning curve theory of production: In many industries, as you build more and more of a product you learn how to do it more efficiently. The "Learning Curve Theory" says that every time you double the total number of units you have ever built, you "learn" to build that product for 20% less. This is the reason that calculators and computers keep costing less and less every year. In M.U.L.E., you get an extra unit (on each plot) for every 3 plots of land you have that are all producing the same kind of product, regardless of where they are located. This is in addition to the bonus you get from economies of scale you get from adjacent plots.

For example, if you had 3 Smithore mines, and 2 were side by side, each mine would produce one extra unit for the Learning Curve effect, and the 2 adjacent plots would each produce a second extra unit for the Economies of Scale effect.

Random colony event

On occasion, a random event may occur just before or just after the production phase. The effect may be felt by every player equally, or by one player specifically. Here is a list of those events.

Image	Name	Effect
	Pirate Ship	In Normal mode, Pirates steal all of the colony's smithore. In Tournament mode, Pirates steal all of the colony's crystite.
	Sunspots	The output of energy production is increased.
	Acid Rain Storm	The output of food production is increased while the output of energy production is decreased.
	Pest Attack	A planetary pest comes along and eats all of the food produced from one random plot.
	Meteorite Strike	A meteorite falls from space and crash lands on the surface of the planet. If a player's plot is beneath the meteor, and a M.U.L.E. was assigned to the plot, the M.U.L.E. is destroyed. If you are playing in Tournament mode, this plot of land is now enriched with Crystite.
	Fire In Store	All of the colony store's stock is burned and the store is left with no commodities. The price of goods is sure to rise as a result, but hope that you didn't need to buy anything that turn.
	Planetquake	The surface of the planet shakes, cause mining production (smithore or crystite) to be half of normal. It is also possible for a mountain to slide from one plot to another as a result (in Atari only). M.U.L.E.s that were assigned to the plots that the mountain moved to and from are destroyed in the process.
	Radiation	An intense burst of radiation causes one player's M.U.L.E. to go out of control and run away.
	Plot not Recorded	One of the player's plots is lost (i.e. reverts to no owner status.)